1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an oil draining control valve, and more specifically to an oil draining control valve suitable for use to exchange engine oil in an oil pan for an automotive vehicle, for instance.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, when engine oil is required to be drained from an engine of an automotive vehicle, a drain plug attached to an oil pan is first removed to drain engine oil. In the conventional way of draining engine oil, however, when the drain plug is removed, there exists a problem in that oil is jetted and scattered toward the outside through the drain port, with the result that working clothes of the worker is soiled or the scattered oil stains the floor of the workshop. In addition, when the drain plug is repeatedly attached to or detached form the oil pan, there exists another problem in that the sealing performance of the drain plug is deteriorated and therefore engine oil leaks through the drain plug.
To overcome these problems, the same inventor has already proposed an oil draining control valve which can be attached to the drain port to drain engine oil by a simple lever operation, instead of the drain plug. In this oil draining control valve, a valve body is pivotally housed in a drain passage formed in a valve housing; and a control lever extending to the outside is connected to a rotary shaft of the valve body. Therefore, when the control lever is pivoted, since the valve body is also pivoted via the rotary shaft, the drain passage is opened or closed according to the pivotal motion of the control lever.
In this prior art valve structure, however, since the control lever connected to the valve body is passed through an L-shaped lever guide opening formed in the valve housing so as to be guided along the lever guide opening, there arises another problem in that the lever guide opening is easily clogged with muddy water or grass, with the result that the control lever is not smoothly pivoted along the guide opening and further the engine oil pan is corroded by muddy water which enters through the lever guide opening. The above-mentioned problem is serious recently, in particular. This is because the outdoor leisure has become popular and therefore the vehicle often travels on non-paved roads such as muddy or gravel roads, so that mud or grass is easily caught by the oil draining control valve disposed extending downward from the engine.